An Ontario judge has ordered the release of a package of search-warrant documents in the Project Traveller case, but it could still be some time before the public gets a clearer idea of what motivated the massive police sweep — and whether there is any link to Mayor Rob Ford.

The court on Friday unsealed one of 36 packages of informations to obtain a search warrant (ITOs). The first package explains why police requested a dozen of the more than 80 warrants involved in this summer’s Project Traveller guns-and-gangs raids.

But the documents are heavily redacted, and the limited portion made available Friday remains under a publication ban, pending further arguments.

Lawyer Peter Jacobsen, who is acting on behalf of the media coalition fighting to gain access to the full suite of ITOs, acknowledged the process is moving at a glacial pace, but he remained optimistic the public could get an initial glimpse of some of the warrant documents within a month’s time.

“At least the process is moving, although it is a frustrating and slow process,” Mr. Jacobsen told reporters outside court.

Material redacted from the first ITO includes wiretap information and a section related to police techniques. Earlier this week, Justice Philip Downes sided with the Crown in ruling that swaths of text must be redacted under s. 193 of the Criminal Code, which prohibits public dissemination of wiretap evidence outside a judicial proceeding.

The warrant battle stems from a series of June raids, during which police targeted dozens of suspected gang members in the Dixon-Kipling neighbourhood — ground zero for the crack allegations against Mayor Ford. Two of the men who appeared in a photograph with the mayor outside a reputed crack house were arrested in the raids, as was a third man who purportedly tried to sell the Toronto Star an alleged cellphone video of Mr. Ford smoking a crack pipe.

In the coming days, Judge Downes will set a timetable for arguments on the 35 remaining ITOs. There will also be additional arguments on the restrictions placed on the first package of warrant documents, although no date had been set Friday.

As for when the public will start to get a real picture of what motivated the police raids, Mr. Jacobsen could not say, noting the court is bogged down by the sheer number of ITOs.

“The problem… is frankly the volume,” he said. “There are so many of them, so that likely will slow things down.”